Documentation of the Malagasy language

In 1603, Frederick de Houtman published in Amsterdam the Spraeck ende Woord-boeck inde Maleysche ende Madagaskarsche Talen, which contains a Dutch–Malagasy vocabulary and dialogues.^[1] De Houtman had learned Malagasy (Old Northern Betsimisaraka dialect) during his stay at Sainte-Marie and in Antongil Bay.^[2][3] The Malagasy vocabulary probably came from a Malagasy interpreter from these regions, who had spent four years with the Dutch and knew Dutch well.^[4] At the same time, in 1603, François Martin de Vitré noted a list of numbers in Southwestern Malagasy (Old Vezo or Old Masikoro) during his passage at Saint-Augustin Bay.^[5] Thus, Malay and Malagasy appear side by side in their works suggesting similarities.

Richard Boothby, in his 1646 work A Brief Discovery or Description of the Most Famous Island of Madagascar, or St. Laurence, recorded several words from the inhabitants of Saint Augustine's Bay (in present-day Toliara). The language spoken in that region is now classified as part of the Vezo dialect, which belongs to the Southern Malagasic dialect cluster—likely representing an early form of Proto-Vezo.^[6]

François Cauche travelled mostly in southern Madagascar in the regions inhabited by the Antanosy, Mahafaly, and Antandroy (Ampatres), but also briefly along the eastern coast among the Antaimoro (Matatane) and around Antongil Bay (Northern Betsimisaraka). He collected mostly vocabulary from the south, where he carried out the majority of his commercial exchanges. He is the first to record conversations in Malagasy, probably from southern and eastern Malagasy varieties, necessary for communication and trade.^[7] His observations and vocabulary were later published in Relations véritables et curieuses de l'isle de Madagascar par François Cauche, et du Brésil in 1651.

A small Malagasy–French vocabulary compiled by Étienne de Flacourt, former Governor of the French settlement at Fort-Dauphin (Tolagnaro), was published in Paris in 1658. It is the first printed work to include prayers in Malagasy. Flacourt likely contributed to the dictionary and a catechism prepared by the Lazarist Fathers, whom he later presented to the future Saint Vincent de Paul.^[8]

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Robert Drury, an English sailor who spent 15 years in southern Madagascar (including Androy, Fierenana, now known as Tulear, and Menabe), collected a vocabulary of southern Malagasy words as spoken in the early 1700s, which he published in his memoirs, Madagascar, or Robert Drury's Journal, in 1729 with the assistance of Daniel Defoe.^[10]

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During his visit to Madagascar, Guillaume Le Gentil recorded several Malagasy words, chiefly in use in the northeastern regions — particularly Antongil Bay, Sainte-Marie and Foulpointe — as well as in Fort-Dauphin. He did not provide details regarding the dialect spoken in Fort-Dauphin, mentioning only differences in greetings. His work focused primarily on the northern dialect in his book Voyage dans les mers de l'Inde, published in 1781. Le Gentil resided in Madagascar on three occasions, in 1761, 1762, and 1763.^[12][13]

Claude Bernard Challan compiled a vocabulary in the 18th century with the help of two Malagasy slaves, primarily collecting words from central and eastern Madagascar, especially Betsimisaraka and Merina. According to Linah Ravonjiarisoa, this edition is richer and more modern, and it includes, for the first time in translation, a sample of Merina words.

In 1773, the Royal Printing House of Mauritius published his work as Challan, Claude Bernard (Abbot), Vocabulaire malgache distribué en deux parties : La première : françois et malgache – la seconde : malgache et françois, which constitutes the very first Malagasy–French and French–Malagasy dictionary.^[14]

In 1816, Barthélemy Huet de Froberville compiled several major manuscripts documenting the Malagasy language in Île de France (present-day Mauritius). Although never printed, these works—particularly his French–Malagasy dictionary—were later instrumental in the development of Malagasy linguistic studies. In 1833, J. Dumont d’Urville published an extract from Froberville's Great Dictionary without acknowledging him as the author. Froberville's work inspired missionary efforts to update a new dictionary in the dialect spoken mostly in Imerina, which was later published in 1835 as the first English–Malagasy dictionary and is closer to modern-day standard Malagasy.^{[15][16][17][18]}